WSOP 2008
Clements Takes an Early Lead
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 4:49 pm
In the $10k PLO event #50, a number of players have already built their stacks up while a few have already been eliminated from the tournament. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was knocked out when his opponent flopped top two pair and all Eric had was a pair of aces in his hand. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements‘ stack is heading in the opposite direction. Clements (pictured right) is the current chip leader with 32k and has not used his reload chip yet. Barry Greenstein was one of the chip leaders in the PLO event until a massive hand took his entire stack away. Greenstein flopped a set of kings on a K
Q
T board and the Q
came on the turn giving him the best full house possible. Unfortunately for Greenstein, his opponent held the other two queens for quads and scooped up a 50k pot to knock Greenstein out of the tournament. He’ll now have a little over an hour to prepare for the final table of the $50k HORSE event that kicks off at 3pm.
Day 2 of the $1.5k NLHE event #49 is set to kick off at 2 pm with a number of notable online players still in the field.
After starting with a massive field of 2,018, only 215 players survived the day to return on day 2. The bubble burst last night at 270 players and all the players returning today are guaranteed at least $2,968 while the 1st place finisher will take home $631,170 along with the gold bracelet. Some notable players hitting the felt again today include Greg “FBT” Mueller (131.7k), Alex “42oneverloses” Case (97.3k), Hevad “RainKhan” Khan (58.8k), and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (20.7).
To Reload or Not to Reload?
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 3:39 pm
The $10k World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha got started at noon today here in the Amazon room with around 240 entrants when play began. The field has since grown to more than 320 players and registration will stay open until the end of level two. We’ve already spotted some P5ers in this smaller field including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
While in most of the other WSOP events this year the starting stack has been double the buy-in for the event, players begin this tournament with 10k in tournament chips plus a red reload chip (pictured left) that is good for another 10k chips whenever the player chooses to use it. Players can elect to use it right at the beginning, to make their starting stack 20k while others may wait until they need the extra chips. At the end of level three, the extra 10k will be added to any player’s stack that hasn’t already used their reload chip.
The final tables of both the $50k HORSE event #45 and the $2k NLHE event #48 will start this afternoon. The HORSE final table is fileld with big name pros including P5’s own Barry Greenstein who comes into the final table with the 3rd largest chip stack as he tries to win his 2nd bracelet this year and his 4th overall bracelet.
The $2k NLHE final table will be led by chip leader Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson who has more than 2.1 million. The final table will begin play at 3 pm where Marco hopes his amazing run in this event will lead straight to his first WSOP bracelet.
Online Players Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 5:46 pm
After tournament registration closed for the $5k NLHE six-handed event, 805 players had entered the tournament, beating last years total by 77 entries. Even with 10k starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, the play has been fast and furious. There are so many notable online players in the field that we can’t even begin to list them all. One of our reporters counted more than 50 notable online players in the field at the start of the tournament so we wouldn’t be surprised if numerous P5ers ran deep in today’s event.
We caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham in a hand with the board reading 6
32. It appeared that Matt had bet out on the flop only to be raised another 2.3k by his opponent. Matt was obviously stressed about his decision and then decided to fold his pocket tens face-up. Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Hevad “RainKhan” Khan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger (pictured right), and Alex Jacob are all doing well and have built their stacks up during the first two levels.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was seen walking through the field of six-handed players a little before 2 pm, but he isn’t playing in today’s event because he is in day 2 of the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tourney. He is seated at table #13 along with Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left). Another table with a few notable players is #15 with Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich all seated together. 81 of the 115 players that started today will make the money so short stacked players are going to have to make moves soon as the bubble isn’t too far away.
“The Toilet” Makes Flush
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 10:28 pm
On a board reading J825 Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka (pictured at left) bet out 5.5K into an already large pot and Thomas Wahlroos thought for some time before moving all-in for less than 10K total. Jaka almost beat Wahlroos into the pot and turned over 24 while Wahlroos held pocket tens. The 9 gave Jaka his flush and shipped the huge pot this way, sending his chip stack up over 20K.
A table in the middle of the blue section might just put the other stacked tables we mentioned in our previous post to shame. At one point the table boasted Chris “moorman1″ Moorman, Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan, Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich, Shaun Deeb, and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Buchanan has since busted out, but while he was still around Freeman and Froehlich tangled in the following hand:
On a board of AAA Froehlich checked and Freeman bet out 1,625 into a 2.5K pot. Eric quickly raised to 3K and Scott thought for some time before laying the hand down.
Another table vying for “Most Stacked” boasts a lineup of Jeff “yellowsub” Williams, Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, Jason “JCarver” Somerville, Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, and Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark. While Jason Carver was explaining the concept of “happiness EV” to Williams after he apparently sucked out on him in a hand, Clark and Fohrenbach went heads up to a flop in a raised pot.
The board came out 643 and Richard checked. Clark bet out 4K and Fohrenbach called. Both checked the Q on the turn and when the T hit on the river Richard checked once again. When Zachary bet 1,700 on the river, Richard laughed and uttered “wow…I can level myself ten different ways here”. He eventually made the call with pocket nines and Clark turned over 2-10. After the hand, Williams played the role of announcer when he stated, “CrazyZachary just took you straight to valuetown.”
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured at right) has been fighting a short stack for much of the day and he has decided to take drastic measures in an effort to reverse his bad luck. He borrowed JJ Lieu’s feathery hat for a hand in which he and Kathy Leibert got it all-in preflop. Josh held A-Q while Leibert had pocket jacks. The flop came 865 and Josh looked to be in bad shape as Kathy held the J. However, the board ran out 4-7 with no hearts and the two split the pot to keep VanDuyn alive.
Josh wore the hat the remainder of the time he and JJ were at the same table and the two even joked about some sort of compensation for Lieu should the hat propel Josh to the final table. However, once their table broke, Josh returned the hat. Perhaps its good luck had worn off.
Dan “wretchy” Martin was recently eliminated when he and two other players saw a flop of 875. After the flop, Dan checked from the small blind and the player in the big blind checked as well. The third player then bet 1.7K, Dan called, and the big blind raised to 5,225. The other player folded and Martin thought some time before moving all-in for 10,225 more. The other player made the call, showing 89 to Dan’s 79. The turn and river were no help for Martin and he was eliminated.
Other players who saw their tournaments come to an end this level include Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, and JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado.
Here are some updated and unofficial chip counts heading into dinner break:
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 70K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 40K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 35K
Richard Fohrenbach - 35K
Eric Froehlich - 32K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 30K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 20.5K
Jason Somerville - 20K
Matt “AllInat420″ Stout - 20K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 18K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 16K
John “apestyles” Van Fleet - 16K
“Bodog”Ari Engel - 14K
Adam “akat11″ - 11.5K
Jeremy “ChainsawJr” Menard - 10K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 6K
Let’s Get It Started!
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 3:20 pm
Getting the players (or maybe the dealers?) pumped up for today’s $1.5k NLHE event #32, the Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get It Started” was pumping through the sound system in the Amazon room again today as a field of nearly 2,000 players filed in to take their seats. The registration line for this event was out the door of the registration room and wrapped around through the hall 20 minutes before the start of the tournament so the total number of players will easily climb higher before registration closes.
There are numerous P5ers hitting the felt today in this immense field including Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (pictured right), Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez, and Andy “BKiCe” Seth. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on these and many other P5ers as the day progresses.
Last night the final table of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) was set and Brock “t_soprano” Parker is coming into the final table as the short stack with only 166k in chips while the current chip leader Aaron Katz has over 1.2 Million. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was eliminated in 12th place when his KQ couldn’t catch up to the AA of J.C. Tran on a JT835 board. Froehlich takes home $35,861 for his great finish in this tournament. The final table will begin playing at 3 pm this afternoon.